Tag Archives: berlin film festival

Over the past 12 days, we’ve watched over 25 films at the Berlin Film Festival, a wonderful opportunity to enjoy some of the most daring, authentic and unique films from all around the world. As we leave Berlin and look forward to Cannes, here’s our round-up of the best 10 films we saw and loved at the Berlinale. Check out …

The Berlin Film Festival ended yesterday after a strong competition lineup and a shocking Golden Bear win for Touch Me Not, an explicit film about intimacy and sexual desires. Last year, the Berlinale played a considerable role in launching several Oscar hopefuls, having screened four of the 9 eventual Foreign Language Oscar shortlisted films in addition to Best Picture …

Touch Me Not (above), the debut film Romanian director Adina Pintille and about the graphic sexual awakening of a 50-something woman, won the Berlin International Film Festival’s top prize, the Golden Bear. It was somewhat of a surprise pick from the Tom Tykwer-led jury. The film also won the first feature prize. In this decade, three countries have won the Golden …

Synopsis: Story of three supermarket workers whose lives intersect between the aisles of the store they work in. Not every festival can deliver a TONI ERDMANN, one of the most hilarious and affecting Cannes offerings to come in a while, and IN THE AISLES certainly isn’t as insane, but it comes close to being this Berlinale’s most crowd-pleasing, heartwarming and …

Synopsis: In Rome, two teenage friends descend into a life of crime hoping for a better future. It’s hard to believe that BOYS CRY is the debut feature of Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo. One of the best directed and most engaging films of the Berlinale, albeit not being selected for competition and relegated to the Panorama section, BOYS CRY is …

Synopsis: Two young men decide to carry out a daring museum heist in Mexico. But things are never straightforward as they seem – neither before or even after the heist. One of the biggest surprises of the Berlinale official competition, Alonso Ruizpalacios’s MUSEUM is a knockout. Offering much more than a traditional heist film, this is smart and effective storytelling …

Synopsis: A blacklisted Iranian director is alarmed when several filmmakers are murdered around the country. He’s alarmed not only because of the murders – but also because he is not being targeted at a time when many of his colleagues were beheaded by the same murderer. If there is one thing in which KHOOK (PIG) stands out among all other …

Synopsis: The story of American cartoonist John Callahan whose alcoholism led him to a permeant physical impairment and a career in satirical cartoons. Gus Van Sant follows up his critically-panned SEA OF TREES with DON’T WORRY, HE WON’T GET FAR ON FOOT, a return to form for the director if not on the level of his other works. Emotional, superbly …

Synopsis: Over the course of 3 days, late German actress Romy Schneider is interviewed in a hotel in France. Surrounding her are a journalist, her best friend and her trusted photographer. ‘Do we keep on living or keep on going crazy?’. Romy Schneider asks herself and those around her, whether she will ever be able to go with either choice. …

Synopsis: On July 22, 2011, a right-wing extremist murdered over 77 young men and woman on Utoya island in Norway. This is a re-telling of this deadly attack. Few films immerse audiences into such a singular, haunting experience as U- July 22. While several films can engage audiences and hold their attention throughout, Eric Poppe goes beyond the captivating and …